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Arnold Rothstein
Arnold Rothstein (played by Michael Stuhlbarg), affectionately nicknamed "The Big Bankroll" is the biggest, most powerful gangster in the country at this time. Character Biography As a consummate gambler, strategic genius, and forward-thinking intellect, Rothstein never bets unless the fix is in. "The Big Bankroll" has incredible resources at his disposal, and will go down in history for his most famous, and possibly most impressive fix - the rigging of the 1919 baseball World Series. It is Rothstein's activity which brings Agent Nelson Van Alden to Atlantic City, and brings the heat on Nucky Thompson. After Nelson Van Alden investigates Nucky's operations, he diverts his attention to him, believing Nucky to be the "bigger fish" of the two. Relationships *Carolyn Rothstein: Wife *Lucky Luciano: Protégé *Meyer Lansky: Protégé Season 1 Arnold Rothstein is first introduced the pilot episode, when he comes to Atlantic City, at the behest of Johnny Torrio, establish a business relationship with Enoch "Nucky" Thompson. In their first business interaction, Nucky agrees to sell Rothstein his newly imported shipment of Canadian Club Whiskey for 60,000 dollars, though Rothstein's own men will be required to do the pickup. The two gangters shake hands on the deal, and a few scenes later, Nucky is seen giving Rothstein a business card for Nucky's illegal casino. The following day, Nucky receives a phone call from Steinman, informing him that Rothstein has won over 90,000 dollars and shows no signs of stopping (Steinman later indicates that he believed Rothstein had been cheating). When Nucky approaches the table, Rothstein asks why he has been cut off, to which Nucky responds that it is a "small house" and that they "can't handle Rothstein's kind of action." When Rothstein tells Nucky that he is willing to accept his credit, Nucky's mood quickly become's sour. Now feeling "unwelcome" at the casino, Rothstein agrees to leave Lolly's, but tells Nucky that he is still owed 33,000 after subtracting the money for the whiskey shipment. Nucky then tells Steinman to cash Rothstein out. This is the last time the two gansters see each other until the season finale. After Jimmy hijacks Rothstein's load of liqour, Nucky is later seen dodging Rothstein's phonecalls. Rothstein's next appearance is in The Ivory Tower. Upon Rothstein's request, Luciano brings the suspected murderer of "Big Jim" Colosimo, Frankie Yale, to Rothstein in the billiard room of what appears to be one of Rothstein's gambling establishments. Since Yale is reluctant to discuss his involvement in the Colosimo hit, Rothstein recounts how he once caused a man to choke to death on a cue ball, the moral of the story being that if he (Rothstein) was willing to cause a stranger to die for his own amusement, that Rothstein wouldn't shy away from doing something worse to Yale if Yale didn't tell Rothstein who ordered Colosimo's murder. Later in the episode, Thompson final takes Rothstein's phone call. Thompson indicates that he is willing to forget about the hijacking incident if Rothstein pays Thompson 1 million dollars and the locations of the other d'alessio brothers. Season 2 Memorable Quotes Rothstein: “There was a man once—I don’t recall his name—frequented the billiard parlors downtown. He made a comfortable living wagering whether he could swallow certain objects, billiard balls being his specialty. He’d pick a ball then take it down his gullet to here, and regurgitate it back up. And one evening, I decided to challenge this man to a wager: ten thousand in cash for him to do the trick with the billiard ball of my choosing. Now, he knew I’d seen him do this a dozen times, so I can only surmise that he thought I was stupid. We laid down the cash, and I handed him the cue ball. He swallowed it down, it lodged in his throat, and he choked to death on the spot. What I knew and he didn’t was the cue ball was one sixteenth of an inch larger than the other balls—''just'' too large to swallow. Do you know what the moral of this tale is, Mr. Yale?" "The moral of the story is that if I cause a stranger to choke to death for my own amusement, what do you think I’ll do to you if you don’t tell me who ordered you to kill Colosimo?” 2: [[The Ivory Tower]] Rothstein: "A sound elimination is the basis of good health." 2 Episode 4: What Does the Bee Do? External links *Arnold Rothstein on The Godfather Wiki. Category:Characters Category:Season 1 Category:Atlantic City Category:Browse